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Sammy is ethnically cleansing Kirkuk
Iraqi police came to the door of Mohammed Osmanâs home in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, and gave him a choice to give up his Kurdish identity or leave town. Osman knew the routine. It had happened several times before and he had been able to buy some time with a $60 bribe. But this time he had run out of money "I couldnât afford it any more and I had to leave," he said. He came to a refugee camp in Benaslawa where 100 other families from Kirkuk have also fled what they call a policy of âArabisationâ of the city. They are among tens of thousands of Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians who have had to leave Kirkuk because they were not Arab. If you're an Arab, you don't have to hide any racism. Jews, Assyrians, Hindus, they're all the same. Even if they're Muslims, they're still not part of the Master Race... Iraqâs non-Arabs and international human rights groups claim that Arab-controlled governments in Baghdad, in an effort to solidify Arab control of Kirkuk, have been kicking out non-Arabs ever since the founding of the Iraqi state after the First World War. In 1999, the Iraqi government stepped up the practice with the new policy of ânationality correctionâ. Under the new rule, non-Arabs are asked to change their ethnicity on identity cards and census documents. If they refuse, they are kicked out. Why, they should count themselves lucky at being invited to join the master race. Lotsa places, they're not that generous. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-06-30 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=5454 |